Responding to recent reports that Zinta had foul-mouthed coach Sanjay Bangar after the franchise succumbed to a one-run defeat against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Kings XI Punjab owner took to her official Facebook account to refute such claims as baseless allegations.
Though quite a few media outlets had carried the story, Preity seemed to be responding particularly to a report in the Mumbai Mirror that claimed that the KXIP owner had directed a ‘fiery monologue laced with a four-lettered word’ at the Bangar and had even publicly threatened to sack him.
It was alleged that Preity was unhappy with Bangar’s decision to send in Farhaan Behardien ahead of Axar Patel who had scored a fluent 7-ball 21 against Kolkata Knight Riders earlier this week.
Behardien managed to score only 9 off 7 balls as the KXIP fell short by one run.
“It was a long monologue with a four-letter word being used liberally. Everybody was stunned as Preity repeatedly threatened to sack Sanjay. Nobody spoke a word. Sanjay cut a sorry figure which was sad because he was surrounded by young players and support staff he is supposed to lead. It was rather unbecoming of the team owner,” said a source quoted by the Mumbai Mirror.
Giving her version of the events on her Facebook page, Preity Zinta said that she had had a 20 second conversation with Bangar and Virender Sehwag where she had simply enquired about the reason why Axar was not sent in to bat. She has however ruled out any allegations of misdemeanor on her part, accusing the report of peddling misinformation.
She also argued that she as well as Bangar had already denied the events but the report had chosen to conveniently overlook her version of the story. In a passionate and strongly worded tirade against the story, Preity has accused the paper of sexism as it is, according to her, deliberately assuming that she does not understand the game well enough. She has also slammed the report as sensationalist journalism carried out by ‘paid media’.
The actress took strong exception to the view in the report that she was setting a bad precedent by interfering with the team management which should be the sole prerogative of the coach as is the case in major football leagues across Europe.
The report had also quoted KXIP co-owner Mohit Burman who had hinted at the incident while emphasizing that things were back to normal now. “I left immediately after the match, but I don’t think there was any serious incident. Next day, both Sanjay and Preity met and all was normal between them,” he said.
Sport360 contacted the relevant people in the Kings management for an official statement regarding the episode, but is yet to receive any response.
The team from Mohali lie at the bottom of the IPL table now having won only three games, with just six points from 10 matches.
